Thursday, June 30, 2016

Mazal Tov: A New Book on Golda Meir, Hot Off the Press

We've
written here many times about Golda Meir, Israel's fourth prime minister, in
posts based on the ISA's forthcoming commemorative volume on her life. We're
happy to announce that the book (in Hebrew) has finally been published and is available
from the Archives.

Last
week the book was launched by its editor, Dr. Hagai Tsoref, at the Association of
Israel Studies conference in Jerusalem. Dr. Tsoref presented Golda's achievements in setting up the welfare state in Israel and the controversy over her role in the Yom Kippur war. But the hottest debate at
the session focused on new research by Professor Pnina Lahav of Boston
University on gender issues: male attitudes towards Golda as a female leader
and whether she was a feminist.

Golda's stand on these issues displays the duality in her character also
found in her attitude towards peace with the Arabs and the social gap
between the established classes and poor Mizrachi immigrants. On the one hand
she was an "Iron Lady", and on the other a sentimental grandmother.
She first came to prominence as an activist in the Council of Women Workers of the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labour in Palestine. As one of its joint secretaries, she supported setting up crèches for working mothers in the
cities as well as training and financial help for female workers in agricultural
settlements, as you can see in this letter which we found in the Lavon Institute Archives.

In
1931 she came to New York, and raised money for these causes while heading the
Pioneer Women's organization. Throughout her life she was deeply concerned
with social justice and helping poor families and she frequently
quarrelled with economic experts who failed to see the human beings behind the
numbers of unemployed or those without a roof over their head.

After her return from the US, Golda moved from women's organizations
to the national stage and held important
positions in the Histadrut, serving as the head of the Political Department
from 1941. Her connections with the Labor movement in the US, her command of
English and speaking skills helped her to advance to the leadership, together
with her determination and devotion to the cause. In 1946, when the British arrested the heads of the Jewish Agency political department, Moshe Shertok (Sharett) and Bernard (Dov) Joseph, Golda as a woman was spared and took their place.

Golda's
path to power was also smoothed by her association with powerful men, such as Zalman Shazar, one of the editors of the
"Davar" newspaper, and especially with her mentor and lover David Remez, secretary-general of the Labour Federation in the 1930s and later a government minister.

As
Minister of Labour between 1949 and 1956 Golda did little or nothing to promote
women to positions of influence. It seems that she distanced herself from any
identification with women's issues and felt it was not possible to promote
special solutions for employing women
who could not be sent to labour on public works, like so many of the
immigrants

Professor Lahav showed that
her appointment as Foreign Minister in 1956 was met with derision from a journalist who did not believe that a woman could fill this post. But most observers
believed that she was chosen instead of Moshe Sharett mainly because Ben-Gurion
saw her as a loyal lieutenant and fellow hardliner. Sharett himself (who had
deliberately given preference to women in the Foreign Service) wrote bitterly
in his "Personal Diary" about her agreement to replace him, which he
regarded as a stab in the back from a party colleague, and

added that she was
unfit for the post, not because of her gender, but because of her lack of formal education.

Golda
became Prime Minister in 1969 when she was already 71 years old, and in poor
health. She ruled her cabinet with a rod of iron, but was often presented as
a homely figure, holding important consultations in her kitchen and shopping
for arms in the US with her capacious handbag and sensible "Golda" shoes.

"!At last, a man as the Prime Minister''Caricature by Yosef Bass, 14 November 1969

Golda Meir and President Nixon in Washington, 1 March 1973Photograph: Moshe Milner, Government Press Office

Like
many of Israel's prime ministers, the end of her career was a tragic one, and
she was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war. The documents
in the book show Golda's strength and determination during the war, but
afterwards she blamed herself for listening to her generals, and not overruling
them to order full mobilization of the reserves when warnings of a possible
Arab attack arrived. On 10 April 1974 Golda resigned after the
publication of the Agranat Report. But she stayed on to complete the